For several days in late November, 2006, I interviewed Justice Gabriel Bach at his home in Jerusalem in connection with his role as a prosecutor in the trial against Adolf Eichmann. The trial took place in Jerusalem 45 years earlier and Justice Bach was the senior prosecutor in the case, second after Attorney General Gideon Hausner who was in charge of the prosecution.

Justice Bach, who was later appointed to the Israeli Supreme Court where he served for ten years until he reached mandatory retirement age, had the greatest contact with Eichmann among the three principal prosecutors.

Once Eichmann was abducted in Argentina and brought to Israel, Bach coordinated the investigation and spoke with Eichmann innumerable times prior to the trial. Having been born in Germany and having left Germany at the age of 11, Bach was completely proficient in German and able to converse directly with Eichmann on matters other than those relating directly to the trial. On those matters he spoke through investigators.

This interview was made possible by a grant from Skip Paul, administered by the Mae Temkin Fund at the University of Wisconsin Law School. My thanks to Skip Paul and the Mae Temkin Fund, and Justice Bach and Mrs. Bach for their hospitality and cooperation in making this video.

In addition, my thanks to Dan Carmi of Tel Aviv for his excellent videography in Jerusalem and Michael Sullivan for his outstanding work in editing the interview and putting this on the Internet for all to see.

Thank you,
Frank Tuerkheimer
Professor
University of Wisconsin Law School